Speaking of autonomous vehicles (see next post down), it seems London’s Heathrow Airport is getting a very cool (and very efficient) example of just such a transportation system. The PRT (personal rapid transporter) comfortably seats 4 passengers and whisks them from terminal to parking lot at 25 mph. Simply enter your destination via the user-friendly touchscreen interface and the battery-powered, driverless vehicle autonomously gets you there via the fastest route possible without stopping.

All of the PRTs, invented by Martin Lowson, are scheduled similar to an air traffic control center to avoid collisions. The $41 million dollar system, which has been in development since 1995, will initially consist of 18 PRTs, which travel on PRT-specific roads which are much slimmer than normal ones.